Ward tax - when I was there ('97 - 03), you paid x% of your previous year's income to your local ward office. Except I didn't really pay them. Not a single yen of it. (All the bills were in Japanese - which I couldn't read - and they didn't seem that bothered about chasing non-payers up. Of course, by the time I left, the figure owed was quite large. Scary even.) So, I'm reluctant to visit Japan, these days, unfortunately. (I hasten to add, I once tried contacting the authorities to see if I could negotiate a settlement but I lived at several different addresses in my time there so it was quite an ordeal calculating it accurately. So, I gave up and moved on / forgot all about visiting again.)
You should do. I'm paranoid about risking going back - I must owe around a million yen in unpaid ward tax (when interest and penalties are added). :(
What are those taxes?
Ward tax - when I was there ('97 - 03), you paid x% of your previous year's income to your local ward office. Except I didn't really pay them. Not a single yen of it. (All the bills were in Japanese - which I couldn't read - and they didn't seem that bothered about chasing non-payers up. Of course, by the time I left, the figure owed was quite large. Scary even.) So, I'm reluctant to visit Japan, these days, unfortunately. (I hasten to add, I once tried contacting the authorities to see if I could negotiate a settlement but I lived at several different addresses in my time there so it was quite an ordeal calculating it accurately. So, I gave up and moved on / forgot all about visiting again.)